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Priceline Hotel: 3* Madison (Downtown) Sheraton


Newbie2007
By Newbie2007,
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I was hoping for the concourse (which is very close to the captial building), but this is not bad. Hotwire listed 3* in central Madison for around $90. The Sheraton website listed the price at $179/night. As before, used Savingsbarn.com.

Since I'm travelling to Madison from Chicago (and I'm staying in a hostel in Chicago), decided to spoil myself a little bit in this stop!

Downtown 45 rejected

Downtown, South 47 rejected

Downtown, Southwest 50 rejected

Downtown, South, Southwest, 55 accepted

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<<Thanks Aaron, I'm still deciding whether I should travel north to see Devil's lake and Wisconsin Deli or head westward (La Crosse) to travel through the scenic byway along the Mississippi River. All these places seem very interesting. ----

The nice thing about the Dells and Devil's Lake is that they are right near one another. You can go play 90 holes (literally, 5 giant 18 hole courses - http://www.piratescovewisdells.com/rates.html) of mini golf at Pirate's Cove in the Dells and then it's 16 miles South to Baraboo, where Devil's Lake is.

Not that you'd have to play 90 holes of mini golf (although I once played 72 holes straight on that course in a freezing October night when I was a kid - this is before they built the latest 18 to bring it up to 90 holes), but just using that as an example. The LaCrosse area is beautiful, but the Dells/Devil's combo would offer some fun and great scenery.

The nice thing about the Dells in October is that you really pretty much have the place to yourself - there's not thousands of screaming children and families. It's the very end of the season and a lot of places are close to closing down for the year.

You could also go on a Wisconsin Duck tour, which is a lot of fun (although it's gotten expensive since I was a kid, I definitely don't remember them being $20) and takes you through some impressive scenery along the Wisconsin River. (http://www.wisconsinducktours.com/time.html) The Ducks are old WWII vehicles that are able to go across land and water.

Just my 2 cents.

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AaronJB,

Do you think it is realistic to be able to visit the Devil's Lake, go on the Wisconsin Duck tour (thanks by the way for that suggestion, it's great), and make it to La Crosse in a day's time. If I have more time, I would visit all those places. But I'm constraint on time and have to be back in Dallas by October 30. My original plan was to also include Minneapolis, hence I thought about going to La Crosse and spend a day driving along the Mississippi River to Minneapolis. I will then meet up a friend in Des Moines, IA. Afterward I'll head back to Dallas. I have from Oct. 25 - Oct. 30 starting at Madison. If you don't mind, I would gladly listen to your input on how best to spend the time. You seem to know the Midwest really well. I'm mainly interested in scenery and interesting little small towns. If need be, I can skip Minneapolis.

Thanks for sharing your thought.

Admin, if topic like this is inappropriate for this thread, is there somewhere I can post question such as this?

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If you are looking for nice small towns, you may want to consider Lake Geneva, which you can swing through on the way to Madison. Lake Geneva is around an hour or so away from Chicago and it's a nice resort town that was really big back in the day as the place to go for Chicago's weathy as a nearby vacation spot. Even Al Capone is rumored to have had a home there at one time, and when Hugh Hefner was in Chicago, Lake Geneva was the spot of a Playboy Club.

The town's popularity fell off once Hefner and others left, but picked up again briskly in the 80's and 90's and continues to rise very dramatically (as you can see by hotel prices that are pretty high for a small town.) There is a very pretty Marina area (called the Riviera) and the downtown isn't very big - but it's really quite nice, with some fun shops and a dive of a video arcade that I used to love as a kid. If you leave Chicago fairly early in the AM, you could swing through there, browse around the town and see the lake, and then continue NW to Madison.

You could take I-94 out of Chicago North over the border to Wisconsin and then get off at route 50 and head West.

Here's the Lake Geneva website (http://www.lakegenevawi.com/)

What you would then do if you did go to Geneva is, afterwards, continue West and go through Delevan and then to Janesville. There you would catch I-39/90 and head the remaining distance North to Madison.

It is probably about 25 miles from the route 50 exit to Lake Geneva, then another 35 miles from Geneva to Janesville, then from Janesville it's another 35 miles or so to Madison. It's about 80 miles from Chicago to Lake Geneva.

You could go up to Milwaukee and then over, but given that you are more interested in towns and scenery, going to Madison this way may be more enjoyable.

The thing that you have got to do (you don't have to, just a thought) is stop at the Brat Stop. When you exit i-94 and get onto 50 to head West to Geneva, there's a restaurant right there that has been there since I was a kid. I haven't been in a while, but no trip was complete without a stop at the Brat Stop. One of your breakfast options is a "Brat and Eggs".

Or this: SUPER EGG VON BRAT

1/4 lb Brat Patty with Egg &

Two Slices of Cheese on an English Muffin

The place has been there for nearly 50 years and is something of an institution.

You can see it at http://www.bratstop.com/

You can read a discussion about the Brat Stop on a Chicago-area food forum here. While a few gave it mixed (but not unfavorable reviews), most are positive. There are photos of the Brat Stop food on the second page of this thread: http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=917...f674b63d5d5a562

In the message thread, someone says, "I don't know if the Brat Stop serves the best brats around, but there's something about the place that I can't get out of my system."

I can agree with that. Wisconsin is known for its Brats and while I cannot say for sure that the Brat stop serves the best ones, in my experience they're very, very good - but it's also the place - it's definitely got a lot of character and there's definitely something about it that gets you coming back.

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If you left Madison fairly early in the AM on the 25th, you could probably do Devil's Lake and briefly spin through the Dells (including a Duck trip) before heading onwards towards LaCrosse.

I'd visit Devil's Lake first, then go to the Dells. I don't know if you're going to have time to do the entire walk around the lake or if you'd want to - it's a pretty big lake - but there is a visitor's center there and you can definitely take in the scenery from the end of the lake or stroll around the nearby area.

It's about 55 miles from Madison to the Dells, then another 89 (little more or a bit less, depending) from the Dells to La Crosse. All of that is expressway, so you're looking at probably 2-2.5 hours drive time between Madison and La Crosse. Given that, I think if you left early you'd have a pretty decent chunk of the day to spend in the Dells and seeing Devil's Lake before heading on to get to La Crosse at a decent hour.

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We can go into that more in a thread in the Minnesota area, but Minneapolis looks pretty cheap for these dates if you wanted to stay a night or two (like 10/27-29?) in downtown Minneapolis.

Are you thinking 10/24-25 Madison, then 10/25 or 26 La Crosse, then 10/27-29 Minneapolis or something like that?

Here's another thought:

Stay in the Dells after Madison, then go through La Crosse on your way to Minneapolis the next day.

The River Walk Inn in the Dells is $49 (on Expedia - this is regular rate) for 10/25. I put my parents up in that hotel a couple of years ago and they liked it - it's on the river and you can walk into the downtown Dells area.

Just throwing out ideas.

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Aaron,

Thanks for the suggestion. My plan is as follows:

10/24 - 10/25 in Madison

10/25 - 10/26 in La Crosse, Wi

10/26 - 10/27 in Bloomington - St. Paul, Mn

10/27 - 10/29 in Des Moines, IA

10/29 - 10/30 in Wichita, KS (room booked already)

10/30 - Back to Dallas

The time is a bit rough, I would like to have more time....but that was not an option. I can skip Minneapolis-St. Paul if necessary (though the Capitol building and the St. Paul Cathedral look really interesting). I noticed the road from Minneapolis to Des Moines passes through very few towns, I would like to keep the driving in the daytime. There are at least 3 towns along the the Mississippi River from La Crosse that I would like to stop by (probably only 30 minutes or so). Looks like I will head out very early from Madison!

I appreciate your suggestion (especially stopping by Devil's Lake and Dells instead of going straight to La Crosse). Since I'm traveling to Wisconsin from Chicago, I'm sure I would have my fill of big city.

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I think your plan is doable, but you will have to really "keep moving" during the days after LaCrosse.

I think if you head out early from Madison, Devil's Lake and the Dells will be fairly easy to do. As previously mentioned, there's the Riverside Inn in the Dells for $49 for that night on Expedia.com, or there's an Econo Lodge in La Crosse for $44 on Hotels.com. I'm not seeing much on Hotwire for either town, although that doesn't really surprise me as it seems as if that's sometimes the case with Hotwire and small towns.

You can see reviews for the Riverwalk (and some pictures of how close it is to the river in the "candid user photos area") here: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g6..._Wisconsin.html

You can see the Econo Lodge reviews here: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g6..._Wisconsin.html

You could also attempt bidding on Priceline for either the Dells or La Crosse.

This is the Wisconsin Dells visitor website: http://www.wisdells.com/

Given the rates I'm seeing in Minneapolis, you could probably stay downtown for fairly reasonably, but you may want to stay outside the city due to the fact that you will likely pay even a bit less for hotel, not to mention not likely have to pay for parking versus paying for parking downtown. It depends on how much you want to spend.

Additionally, if you want to rough it, you could camp @ Devil's Lake for $10-15 plus tax/fees for that night.

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I went online to check on devil's lake. The park area is so huge. How would you go about tackling the area if you only have 1 hour or 2. I also notice the park doesn't open until 9:00 a.m.

I've decided to stay in La Crosse, Wi for the night. I notice a 2* in hotwire for 48/night. I'll ask in another thread about possibly identifying it. You have been of great help regarding my exploration of Wisconsin.

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